[ale] [OT] AT&T DSL vs RoadRunner cable broadband

[Jim Kinney]

BS has a wonderful habit of installing a type of equipment that no one
can connect to. At least that's what the claim is. There are certain
types of systems they are not required to allow third-party hookup to
so that is what they deploy by default.

The only _REAL_ solution to this nightmare is to legislate a permanent
split between hardware provisioning and service provided over that
hardware. When "Fred's Pole Service" doesn't deliver working
wires/fiber/coax to a neighborhood, the data services can petition to
have the contract revoked and a new last-mile provider can bid. This
may need to be a local city/county servicing process or a neighborhood
contracting process (think condo association here).

I also feel very strongly that content providers should not be allowed
into the access provider market. It's too much of a conflict of
interest issue (Imagine if Disney offered Internet access.).

On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 8:46 AM, tom <tfreeman at intel.digichem.net> wrote:
> Last time I tried to upgrade my Speakeasy service here in Charlotte, they
> couldn't. BellSouth (at the time) had this market so locked up tight I was
> tied to the idsl option only. Supposedly a portion of Atlanta is the same
> way.
>
> Don't get me wrong. Even the idsl service from Speakeasy was worth the
> cost because of the level of service they provide (two lightning strikes
> has definitely tested the equipment)
>
> Guess its time for me to try and get a faster service again from them.
> Otherwise I'm afraid it may be RoadRunner sometime soon in the future.
> (blech)
>
> On Fri, 6 Feb 2009, Jim Kinney wrote:
>
>> Speakeasy.
>>
>> Awesome service. The support is in native English and the person on
>> the other end can actually run a connection test and do diagnostics.
>> It's more $$ than AT&T or Comcast but I'd rather have things work and
>> be able to get things fixed if they don't.
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 8:16 PM, Sean C. McCord <scmlist at cycoresys.com> wrote:
>>> On Fri, Feb 06, 2009 at 03:51:15PM -0700, JK wrote:
>>>> I'm hoping maybe ATT will get their act together and make
>>>> me happy sometime soon.
>>>
>>> Good luck is all I can say.  I used to recommend BellSouth DSL lines to
>>> my customers, and woe is me for it, now.  BS has always been a pain to
>>> work with, but at least you could get to someone who knew something
>>> eventually and get the problem resolved... or if you were veteran, at
>>> least bully the people into doing what needed to be done.
>>>
>>> Since the AT&T merger, however, it has been a swift spiral downward.
>>> They are rapidly bumping out the people who knew anything at all levels
>>> I've been able to interact with.  It is very reminescent of the old MCI
>>> meltdown.
>>>
>>> At any rate, and without going into horrible details:  stay away from
>>> AT&T DSL.  I can say that Comcast, while totally incompetent in the
>>> support arena, at least works more often.  I have no experience with
>>> Time-Warner.
>>>
>>> Consumer-level "broadband" is in a dysmal, non-competitive state, but, of
>>> course, there's nothing new about that.  All's not doom and gloom,
>>> though.  You can finally get double-digit download (but, mind you,
>>> definitely not upload) speeds (after only a dozen years or so of general
>>> "broadband" availability) at a somewhat affordable price. :)
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III